First half net profit at Veropharm, one of Russia's five top drug producers, increased by 21.8 percent year-on-year to 729.4 million rubles ($24.33 million) to IFRS, the company said on Thursday.

Veropharm, one of Russia's leading producers of plasters and cancer drugs, said sales rose 16.2 percent year-on-year to 2.673 billion rubles.

The firm's net sales margin increased 2.5 percentage points year-on-year to 27.3 percent.

EBITDA went up 20.9 percent year-on-year to 917.7 million rubles, accounting for 34.3 percent of the company's total sales in the reporting period, while EBITDA margin rose 1.3 percentage points to 34.3 percent.

Veropharm's debt amounted to 777.4 million rubles, or less than 20 percent of the company's net assets.

MOSCOW, September 9 (RIA Novosti)